Family
by Zedzy555
Summary: Sometimes it takes getting hurt to realize that people really care for you.
1. Chapter 1

**Family**

"Why do we have to go on patrol?" Yuuichirou Hyakuya let out a groan of complaint like he'd rather kill himself than do what he was doing right now. He slumped forward as he walked, clearly deadbeat tired. "It's the middle of the night, and they wake us up practically just to kick us out of the dorm."

"Now, now. Don't get so worked up, Yuu." Shinoa Hiiragi giggled mockingly, a few feet behind the grumpy, sleepy boy who was gripping his sword in his hand so tightly that anyone within a five meter radius would be careful.

She loved to tease him, but she had seen the extent of his new power after letting himself getting possessed by his demon.

If she went too far with her teasing within strike range, she wasn't too sure if she could manage to escape unscathed from his _katana_.

"We're here too, you idiot." Kimizuki Shiho muttered, also clearly sounding sleep-deprived. "Don't act like you're the only one suffering. We all got dragged out here, just like you."

"Shut your mouth." Yuu shot back, already ready to start a fight.

Kimizuki wasn't afraid to proceed either, beginning to advance on Yuu with his hands reaching for his twin swords. "What'd you say, punk?!"

"Guys, we're on patrol! Save it for later!" Sangu Mitsuba quickly got in between the two that were ready to begin an all-out brawl, holding her arms up to push them away. "They told us that several Horsemen of the Apocalypse are nearing the city, and that we need to find and eliminate them! Don't go starting a fight now!"

"Actually, if they do that, maybe they can attract the Horsemen with the noise they'll make?" Shinoa teased with a smile, taking ten more steps away from the scene that could quickly become a battlefield if Mitsuba didn't defuse the bomb quickly enough.

"You're not helping at all, Shinoa!" Mitsuba commented sharply, shooting her a venomous look which the purple haired girl simply laughed off.

"Guys!"

They all were alerted by Saotome Yoichi's urgent tone of voice, followed by the sound of a massive explosion in the distance. They turned to look at him, and they realized that he had drawn his bow and was facing the west. He glanced at them with an uneasy expression as he drew the string back before looking back to his target and firing again. Another, bigger explosion rung out and illuminated the moonlit, deserted street with bright orange and yellow fiery light.

"Are those the Horsemen you're talking about?" He asked breathlessly as he drew the third arrow, and then pointed at his faraway target with the sharp projectile still nocked in the bowstring.

Mitsuba drew out her axe and took a few steps in the direction Yoichi was facing, and her eyes narrowed. "…yeah, I think those are the targets. At the very least, some of them."

"What are we waiting for, then?!" Yuu shouted with fervor, drawing his blade and sprinting forward, leaving the rest of his team in the dust he was kicking up. "A few Horsemen is easy!"

"That stupid…!" Kimizuki growled in irritation before he drew his own swords and followed behind Yuu, the two of them heading straight for the first Horseman in sight.

"Those two are just idiotic." Mitsuba muttered, exasperated, before she began running as well with Shinoa behind her.

Yuu leaped at the first Horseman, a two-story tall specimen with large tentacle-like arms, and cut through it so easily it was like watching a baker cut through freshly baked bread. The only difference being the immense downpour of blood that came afterwards. The upper half of the creature toppled onto the ground lifelessly, with the lower half following behind it shortly. The body made the ground rumble and shake as it collapsed.

"You dumbass! Behind you!" Kimizuki held one of his swords in his hand and then hurtled his other one at the Horseman that was fast charging upon Yuu's open backside. The chain extended as it flew, becoming longer than it used to be. The boy holding the other end of the chained blades then pulled back hard, and the distant sword came back like a fishing rod, cutting through the monster's legs and making it crash into the ground hard.

"Not bad, for an idiot." Yuu remarked sarcastically as he turned around and then raised his sword up. Instantly, a dozen replicas of his own sword materialized around him and then shot like bullets, burying themselves into the incapacitated beast.

"You guys aren't doing that bad." Shinoa critiqued with a smile as she leaped backwards, evading the legs of a Horseman and then slashing them with her own Scythe. She twirled her scythe and prepared to deliver the finishing blow.

The beast suddenly let out a roar and then lashed out with one of its arms. Shinoa narrowly dodged the oncoming arm with an inch to spare, and she raised her scythe in preparation to sever the arm.

But what she didn't realize was that the arm wasn't trying to attack her.

It had grabbed a nearby car.

 _Shit!_ Kimizuki thought as he saw the spectacle in his peripherals while dodging the blow of another Horseman. _I won't make it in time!_

"Kimizuki! Throw me!" Yuu shouted desperately, his eyes locking with his comrade's. Yuu thrust out his arm, his hand open for his comrade to take.

And for a moment, Kimizuki was lost in the moment. His mind was blank, and the only thing registering in his thoughts was his body movements. In a single fluid motion, he reached out and grabbed Yuu by his wrist and flung him in Shinoa's direction.

"Shinoa!"

In a single instant, Yuu managed to fly directly into her and grab her, wrapping his arms around her frame and taking her with him. The mass of scrap metal hurtled past them and then crashed into the ground before creating a flaming explosion that rattled the air.

The sound of creaking steel suddenly rang through the air as a power line tower began to fall down. The transformer hit the ground with a violent boom, and yellow sparks flew through the air with a seething hissing sound. With the wires violently twisting like pinned snake, the pole slowly fell downwards and slammed into the ground with all the force of a cinderblock.

The two had escaped from the collision of both the car and the column, managing to avoid getting flattened by the car. They landed in the dirt, unharmed and still intact.

"You okay, Shinoa?" Yuu asked, looking down at the girl that he'd saved and was now in his arms. "Are you unhurt?"

"U-um, yes." She stuttered, a little flustered at their faces being so close to one another. The Hiiragi family member could feel her heart flutter a bit and her face growing a bit warmer, and she averted her gaze to look down instead. "I'm f-fine."

"Okay." Yuu replied, looking relieved, before he loosened his tight grip on her body. "Glad you got out in one piece."

Nothing about that statement nor the way he looked when he said those words helped Shinoa's confused heart at all. It was like snakes were strangling her insides, but it wasn't unpleasant at all.

The sound of another explosion shook her and brought Shinoa back to her senses, and she was quick to recover. She quickly got to her feet, escaping Yuu's grasp and holding her scythe up in preparation to fight.

However, the Horseman that had attacked her was dead. Blown to pieces was the most accurate description to give to what she was looking at.

"Got it!" A distant call from their marksman Yoichi told Shinoa all she needed to know, and she just sighed and let her weapon dematerialize. The bladed weapon let out a hiss as it faded into black flames that dissipated into the air.

 _Agh!_ Suddenly, she realized that a burning pain was making its way up her left leg. She looked down and was surprised to find blood dripping down her shin and leaving bloody splatters on the pavement. The pain that she had suddenly become aware of was like a burn and a sprain at the same time, a twisting fire that seared her calf.

"Shinoa!" Yuu let out a cry of concern as she fell to one knee, clutching at her leg in pain. He rushed to her side quickly, and spotted the source of the blood. He cringed at the sight, then let out a sigh of relief upon closer inspection.

The wound itself wasn't that bad, from Yuu's point of view. If a normal person had received it, it would normally take treatment and more than a week for it to recover. However, to an experienced member of the Moon Demon Company, it would heal on its own after a night's sleep.

Still, it looked gruesome enough to warrant shivers. Below her knee, Shinoa's leg had a large gash running from her knee down to her ankle. Beyond that, an immense, dark purple bruise was present on her ankle. Blood ran down the limb plentifully, forming a puddle of crimson on the cement.

It looked spine-chilling to most civilians, but things like this couldn't make Yuu bat an eye. He'd seen worse in his short time with the Moon Demon Company.

"Yeesh, that doesn't look good." Mitsuba made a sound of surprise mixed with disgust the instant she laid eyes on the injury, even taking a step away from Shinoa upon seeing it. "You won't be able to fight with that injury."

"Tch." Yuu made a sound of irritation and clenched his fist in self-frustration. "If only I'd been quicker to react."

"Hmm…we can't risk you getting injured any further." Kimizuki said as he drew closer to the group, his eye on the injury. "We can't go on like this. We're not a team of five anymore. Any armed vampires out here will be dangerous with us like this."

"Then let's head back." Yoichi replied, glancing worriedly at his surroundings as if something were going to leap out at any minute. "They should understand if our Squad Leader's been injured."

"…I hate to say it, but I agree with you. Going on like this will get us killed." Shinoa let out a defeated breath and then held her arms out to Yuu. "So? What are we waiting for? Carry me back."

"…huh?"

"D-Don't give me that look. How am I supposed to head back if I can't walk?" She gave him such a confused expression that, combined with the use of a very matter-of-fact tone of voice, left Yuu at a loss for words.

 _C-C-Carry her?_ He thought, reluctant at the idea. But he gave in to his guilt when he thought again that if he'd been even a second faster, he could have helped her avoid the injury. He accepted it silently and walked over to the purple-haired girl without another word, and then lowered his body so that his back was facing her. "Get on."

"S-Sure." Shinoa dragged herself onto him so that she was practically, for all intents and purposes, being given a piggyback ride. She locked her arms loosely around his neck so that she wouldn't fall off.

"Alright, let's head back. Yoichi, keep an eye out for any approaching Horsemen or Vampires. Mitsuba and I will keep these two safe in case any surprise attacks show up."

"Got it!" The brown-haired boy nodded in agreement before turning and firing an arrow at a streetlight. The projectile stuck into the large bulb, leaving behind a trail of green energy that the archer used to pull himself up onto the high vantage point.

"…since when could he do that?" Mitsuba muttered in grudging admiration.

"Better for us, worse for the vampires. Come on, let's get going." Yuu replied, sighing as he began to walk. He shot a glance back at Shinoa, whose forehead was directly against the back of his own. "You can take a nap or whatever. It'll help recover your energy."

"I'll take you up on that, since you're being such a gentleman." Shinoa replied with her usual teasing smile, knocking him on the back of his head with her forehead once before leaning on it and closing her eyes while her friends began the long trek on foot back to their base.

* * *

 **15 Minutes Later…**

Shinoa stood in an empty place with absolutely nothing but the color white. The endless floor, the vast ceiling and the nonexistent walls that were so far apart it was like a new dimension.

In front of her was a large floating being made up of dark smoke. A large glowing orb of orange and yellow sat where its head looked to be, near a pair of jagged horns that curved upwards.

"You amuse me sometimes, Shinoa." The demon had a very high-pitched, feminine voice despite its extremely menacing appearance. The demon just stared at its contractor with no expression on its face.

Any expression it could make was lost to the smoke it was made out of.

"Well, I'm glad I can be friends with you too." Shinoa replied with a smile, her hands behind her back. "You're probably the only friend I have that's still trying to kill me, though."

"True." The smoky creature shrugged, although its shoulders were so wide and bulky that it didn't seem like a shrug and more like it was lifting the sky with its back. "…but really, you amuse me more now than before."

"Why is that, Shii?" Shinoa asked in reply, looking at her demon with an expression of friendly curiosity that a normal person would normally not wear when dealing with a demon. "Have I done anything in particular to amuse you?"

"No…it's just that humans are often the most entertaining to watch when they lie to themselves."

Shinoa wanted to open her mouth and reply to the statement in a thousand different ways. To ask what Shii meant, to rebut, or even to lash out.

But her throat held her words in place in a grip unshakable, and Shinoa stood there in that empty place with her mouth already open. But not a single word came out.

… _I'm…lying to myself…?_

"If denial were a sin, I would have taken you over long ago." Shinoa's demon scoffed mockingly before it began to disappear into the air. "But I like you, so I'll offer you this." As the flames disappeared and left Shinoa alone, her last words emanated all around the girl as the world of white around her slowly began to shake and fade into nothingness.

"Being true to yourself is the only way you can die in this world without regrets."

"Shinoa!"

The girl woke up with a start, opening her eyes to the sound of a male voice that was so close to her it nearly made her uncomfortable. She raised her head and rubbed her eyes in an effort to wake herself up, realizing that Yuu had called her name. "…what? I was having a decent nap." Shinoa let out a small, sleepy yawn right after she finished talking.

Yuu made his own exasperated noise. "We're already near your room."

"…my room?" It took a while for it to sink in. Once it did, however, Shinoa's eyes shot open and her fingers suddenly began to dig into Yuu's shoulders. "What are you talking about?" She pressed him for an answer.

"Well…" Yuu looked away, a little embarrassed. "…see, there's a little bit of a problem with the apartment building. Remember that power line the Horseman took down? It caused a few problems with the circuit breakers, and the mechanics had to restart the generators while they get things up and running again."

"So? What about that explains why you're carrying a frail, helpless, cute girl over to your apartment in order to ravish her with your love?"

"I-I'm not doing that!" Yuu promptly shot back before continuing. "The power outage that occurred when they switched the generators caused a malfunction with the electronic locks on our doors. Yours was locked, and so is Yoichi's."

"I see…" Shinoa replied, having already figured out the rest of it. "So, since Mitsuba's room is too small for other people to stay in, Yoichi bunked with Kimizuki and I'm with you, correct."

Yuu nodded in agreement. "Besides, your apartment is a farther walk than mine."

"You be exercising more, Yuu. You're gonna need those muscles if you want to be killing vampires." Shinoa harassed him further with her signature smile, poking his calves with a finger.

"Don't do that!"

* * *

"Your room isn't as messy as I thought it would be." Shinoa remarked the minute they stepped through the doorway.

Yuu's room was much like most of the other rooms of the rest of the Moon Demon Company. It was a plain looking apartment room that was surprisingly spacious for a post-apocalyptic room. The walls were an eggshell white, faded slightly due to wear and tear.

Yuu's bedroom was large. With a single queen-sized bed complete with white fluffy pillows and a white blanket, the room felt much like a hotel. The bedroom was connected directly to the hallway near the door, which was a few steps away from the entrance to the bathroom. The comfort room looked relatively clean, with the porcelain and steel that looked slightly faded as if it had been aged for a year.

It looked surprisingly well for a room that had survived the apocalypse.

"Give me a break." Yuu replied, sighing as he closed the door using his leg. He began walking down the very short hallway that led to the bedroom, and he walked to the side of the bed. "Here, you should sit down for a second."

"You're very daring, forcing a girl who can't fight back to sit on your bed the minute you enter your apartment." Shinoa remarked coyly.

"If you have enough energy to talk back, then maybe you can try standing up on your own." He shot back, and he lowered himself with his back facing the bottom bunk. Setting her down, Shinoa sat down hard onto the mattress with a small yelp.

The exchange of banter more or less at a standstill now, Yuu just let out an exhausted sigh and loosened the collar of his undershirt. "Man, it's hot here most of the time."

"Even if it's the evening?" Shinoa tilted her head as she gave Yuu a look of mocking disbelief.

"Yeah. Oh, I'll be the one to make dinner, so just wait there for a minute." Yuu said as he took off his coat, and then he walked past the corner and disappeared from Shinoa's line of sight.

As Yuu walked into the kitchen, he hung his coat on a nearby chair. _Now that I think about it, I should probably take a shower._

… _what about Shinoa?_ The thought suddenly came to mind, and he shot a glance at the bathroom. _Won't she need one too?_

"What do you want to eat, Shinoa?" He asked the question with a loud voice so that his companion could hear him from the other room.

"Whatever you have will be fine." She called back to him. "I'm a guest here, so I'll take whatever you serve."

 _Then that's the curry._ Yuu thought to himself bitterly as he opened the meager, small refrigerator that had come with the room. Inside were a few ingredients that was given by the supplies of the base, such as meat and various odds and ends for cooking. _I guess making curry back in the vampire capital will have been good for something after all..._

He prepared the food quickly, still trying to cull his thoughts about the shower. Deciding that he would have to go since Shinoa still couldn't stand, he began setting the table with plates and utensils.

 _Regardless of who goes first, I'm going to have to change out of these._

Doing his best to ignore Shinoa, he walked back into his bedroom and went over to the wooden closet at the opposite end of the room. Opening it and pulling out a drawer, he took out a dark grey tank top and a pair of black shorts. He refused to make eye contact with the girl sitting on his bed as he quickly walked into the bathroom to change his clothes.

After he'd put on his clothes, he walked back out and poked his head out to meet Shinoa's gaze. "Dinner's ready. Need me to help you up?"

"Actually, I'd appreciate that." She replied with a tone of gratitude, and she held out a hand for him to take. Sighing, Yuu walked over to her and took her arm over his shoulders. Placing another arm around her waist, he pulled her up and supported her into a standing position that was sort of awkward with the two of them so close to one another.

"Actually, I thought about getting you out of those clothes…" Yuu began, glancing down at her bloodstained coat and socks.

"You're a naughty boy~"

He did not need to retaliate with words. Instead, he pretended to wobble. The lack of balance made the girl let out an instinctive small scream, which was immediately followed up with a dagger-like gaze and a pinch to the shoulder that Yuu could have lived without.

The two made it to the kitchen, and Yuu sat her down onto the closest wooden chair before pulling the other chair up so that he could sit beside her. He took the plates that he'd placed onto the dining table and walked over to the stove. He turned off the blue flames, and then lifted the pot of curry and placed it onto two different plates. Yuu took both plates in his hands and then walked back to the table, placing one in front of Shinoa and the other one where he sat.

"Here, some curry." Yuu said as he took his seat.

Shinoa immediately took a spoonful of it and placed it into her mouth. Instantly, her eyes widened in pleasant surprise while she gulped down the mouthful of food. She turned her focus to the boy in front of her, clearly startled. "You're better at cooking than I thought you were."

"Thanks, I guess." Yuu muttered, a little embarrassed at the sincere praise. "Not as great as Kimizuki though." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, caught completely off guard by the sudden compliment. "It was just something I picked up since my little brothers and sisters liked curry a lot."

Shinoa's expression became a mix of both solemn and curious. "…from your time in the vampire's capital?"

"...Mm." Yuu nodded, confirming what she had already guessed. "Mika would always help out no matter who was cooking. He just wanted us all to live happily together as a family, so he'd done stupid things before and risked his life just so that we could have curry every now and then." Yuu chuckled and smiled in spite of himself, recalling the bittersweet memories of his younger days.

"Well, at least I know that you had someone as equally stupid as you in the capital to keep you safe." Shinoa remarked with a grin.

"Hey, don't tease Mika. He's smarter than me." Yuu replied, not being baited by the tease and instead giving her a serious answer. "He made a plan to save our lives."

"Even if it failed in the end and you were the only one to get out?"

"…yeah. Even if." Yuu looked down at the floor, the grief welling up within him again for a brief moment before he took a deep breath and forced it back down.

"…to be honest with you, Yuu, I'm envious."

Yuu looked up to meet eyes with Shinoa, whose expression was not that of her usual playful air. Instead, while she kept the same smile she always had, her eyes radiated with sincerity. "I didn't have anyone to call family the way you did."

"…didn't you say you had a sister?"

"Yes, what about her?"

Yuu simply wasn't sure where she was coming from at this point. He simply gave her a weird look. "You just said that you never had anyone to call family. But you had a sister, and you're part of the Hiiragi family…"

Shinoa's expression turned blank, like she was trying to decide what face she should make. Slowly, it became one of slight discomfort. "If you were to call family the people that share your surname, then I surely have a family." She took another bite out of her curry before she continued. "But I'm sure that to you, family is not like that."

"Um…" Taken aback, Yuu could only nod.

"My parents were not loving ones, though my mother could be called something like an exception. I was raised mostly in the absence of my parents, and my sister did not offer me sisterly love like that you would probably think of." Her eyes glittered with something like nostalgia, but it was also stained with sullenness. "I was mostly alone."

 _I see…_ Yuu realized it as he listened to her, his lips being clenching together in thought. _So that's what she meant._

"Haha. This isn't something I'd like to talk about at the dinner table." Shinoa laughed, sounding very bothered. She slowly got to her feet and stood up, limping a bit but otherwise managing to stay upright. "If you wouldn't mind, I'll be taking a shower in your bathroom."

"Ah, uh, sure." Yuu, still letting his thoughts roam, agreed hurriedly when he realized that Shinoa was talking.

Shinoa walked away and closed the bathroom door behind her, leaving Yuu alone in the kitchen.

… _no one to call family, huh?_

* * *

"Is this…really all you had to wear?" Shinoa asked as she looked down at her change of clothes, clearly hesitant. She took a glance at Yuu, who sitting on the bottom bunk before she came out of the bathroom.

A pair of Yuu's newly washed boxers shorts under a single white T-shirt. After she had requested a change of clothes, Yuu had scrounged around the room to find her some clothes. The result was an outfit that looked exactly like a pervert's.

"Um…well, it's not like I have any girl's clothes lying around." Yuu said embarrassedly, looking away from Shinoa in order to keep himself from either laughing or staring. "S-Sorry."

"N-No, it's nothing you have to apologize for…" She replied, pulling the bottom of the shirt down to cover her underwear. "Just…it's quite revealing."

"I can see that."

"Don't get smart with me now." Shinoa replied with a frown, punching Yuu lightly on his bicep. "And don't look at me, or I'll impale you on Shii."

"Fine, fine. I got it, so don't pull out your scythe." Yuu muttered, sighing as he walked out of the room and over to his closet.

Shinoa tucked her hairclip back into her hair and then pulled the white shirt down as far as she could to cover her lower body. It was the only time she was ever thankful for having a small stature, for the bottom of the shirt reached past her waist and stopped at around her thighs.

However, she had mixed feelings to think about the fact that it covered the boxers she was wearing. It looked like she had nothing else on except for the shirt.

Add that to the fact that she was wearing her underwear from earlier, and Shinoa felt like she was both clean and dirty.

"Anyway, you can go ahead and sleep." Yuu said as he walked back into the main bedroom with a pillow and a blanket in his arms. He tossed the pillow onto the floor a few feet from Shinoa, and she realized what that meant.

"Are you going to sleep on the floor?" She asked, getting up from the bed.

"Yeah." Yuu replied matter-of-factly. He looked at her like he had no idea why she had asked. "Why?"

"You don't really have to." Shinoa replied, shaking her head. "You sleep here, so-"

"You idiot, you need to get some rest!"

Yuu loud outburst forced Shinoa to lapse into a shocked silence, and she stared at him as Yuu tried to get himself to calm down. He took a deep breath and then let it out in a sigh. "Like hell I'm gonna let an injured person sleep on the floor. It makes no sense."

Shinoa wanted to rebuke the statement, but the logic was too sound. Having been defeated, she nodded loosely and sat down onto the bed again.

"…you don't have to act strong when you're with me, Shinoa." Yuu offered a kind smile. "I'm part of your new family now, remember?"

Those words really got to her. Shinoa felt her chest tighten at the word _family_ , and she turned to face him as he spoke. Yuu just turned away with a slight blush of embarrassment. "…I-I don't know what you think about me, But I care a lot about you."

"…"

Shinoa felt frozen in time as she stared at Yuu like he'd offered to drink a brick. Her heart felt constricted and warm, like a python were hugging her from the inside.

It didn't take long for her to burst out laughing.

"Wha-What are you laughing for?!" Yuu responded, still too embarrassed. He glared at her, but Shinoa couldn't take it seriously. She was busy laughing hard enough that she had fallen backwards onto the mattress.

 _That's right, I have a new family._ Shinoa's mind was on an all-time high, warmer and happier than it had ever been. It felt like her entire being, everything she ever was, had been poured out from her in an instant. And despite her mouth belting out the most powerful laugh she'd ever dared to let out, her thoughts were clear like a river of crystal. _People to rely on and care about…_

She took a deep breath as she settled down, and then she sat up. "Ah~ah, I told Mitsuba that you were nicer than you looked, but this really goes farther than I expected." Shinoa got to her feet, her smile practically like permanent marker on her face. She walked over to Yuu and then crouched down in front of him with her arms hugging her knees. "You should show her this side of you. She'd definitely find it new."

"Hey, knock it off. Don't say things like that. You don't sound like yourself." Yuu said, the warm tension and awkwardness piling up for him.

… _what is this feeling? Like…like I could get something off my chest…_

"Hey, Yuu."

"What?"

"I think... you're a very important person to me."

Yuu felt his chest tighten at Shinoa's smile, and he could swear the aircon was broken or something because the temperature was no longer what it used to be. He inched away from the girl crouching in front of him, his mind slowly getting jumbled and messed up like gelatin in a blender.

"…I guess you're important to me, too." Yuu managed to blurt that out as he looked away, his ears already tomato red. "…I mean, you're…part of my new family and all…"

Shinoa thought her smile couldn't get any wider, but it did. It felt like it was beaming with the energy of a thousand suns, and her heart felt like it had already taken off from the landing strip.

She immediately stood up and then sat down onto the bed, patting the mattress on the spot next to her. "Well, if we're family, then sharing a bed shouldn't be a problem. Right?"

"Hey, what?!" Yuu screamed, standing up in what seemed like near-terror as he just stared incredulously at Shinoa. "What are you talking about?!"

"I'm not letting you sleep on the floor. That would be rude of me. And besides, this is queen-sized, isn't it?" The purple-haired girl gestured to the mattress matter of-factly. "This should be able to fit both of us easily."

Again, sound logic won the day. Yuu couldn't fight her statement with logic, so he just hung his head and gave up against the girl in his apartment who was ignoring all factors of conventional common sense. Shinoa moved over to the side next to the wall and took her pillow and blanket with her as Yuu crawled onto the mattress with his own set of pillow and mattress.

He fell down onto his head and then faced away from Shinoa, trying to calm himself as he tried his very best not to think too hard about the current situation. Yuu shut his eyes hard, half-wishing sleep would hit him like a rock.

However, what he felt instead was a poke in his back.

Yuu shifted so that he could turn his neck around and look at Shinoa. He was met with a surprisingly emotional gaze from a girl that was lying down right next to him and facing him.

"…you're precious to me, Yuu. So you'd better not die."

Yuu's eyes widened, and then he flashed her a grin. "Who are you talking about? I'm going to kill all those vampires, and not a single one will be able to kill me." He reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder. "So…don't you die, either."

"…mm. I promise I won't die, so you'd better promise me that, too." Shinoa said, poking him in the chest with her forefinger and placing her other hand on his shoulder.

"…alright, I promise."

* * *

 **The Next Morning…**

"Why did you drag us over here first thing in the morning, Mitsuba?" Kimizuki growled crankily as he walked, his fists clenched and his teeth gritted. "You haven't explained yourself at all!"

"I told you, we need to go over there!" Mitsuba replied, still flustered. She refused to ease up, still dragging Yoichi by the wrist behind her.

"Guren will tell them that Shinoa's room is fixed. There's no need to go over there ourselves!" Kimizuki complained, wishing he could go back and sleep.

"Her room's door is fixed, but her power's still out. So, I think Gurren went there to tell her that she still needs to stay at Yuu's" Yoichi said matter-of-factly.

"That's not the problem here!" Mitsuba shot back, not saying another word that might betray her thoughts.

She was far more concerned with the very fact that she was sleeping at his apartment.

As they rounded the corner, they spotted Guren walking from the other direction towards them. He waved a hand over to them as he stopped by the door to Yuu's room. The minute that they reached him, he had already knocked on the door.

"What, you guys came here too? Such good friends, aren't you?" Guren let out a tired sigh and rubbed his eyes. "If I had known, I would've just let you guys take care of it for me."

"We don't care at all!" Kimizuki and Mitsuba retorted, and Yoichi just remained quiet with a tired smile on his face.

"…he's not answering at all, is he?" Guren muttered as he stared at the door. Indeed, there seemed to be no noise coming from the inside. No footsteps, rushed or otherwise, to the door. It didn't even sound like there was anyone inside.

"Maybe they're both still asleep." Yoichi muttered, clearly not wanting to break into the room. He was getting a bad feeling just from being there, and he had the foreboding premonition that things were going to snowball. He tugged onto Mitsuba's wrist and lightly began to pull her away. "Let's just come back later."

But if he were the innocent civilian that didn't want to take part in anything, Mitsuba was the willing, eager accomplice to the criminal. She quickly swiped the master keycard from Guren's hand, since he was just about to use it, and then opened the door. Pushing Yoichi aside, she grabbed the doorknob and then opened the door roughly.

Stomping inside, she made a beeline for the bedroom with her fists clenched. "Yuu! Wake up al-!"

And she was greeted with the sight of Yuu and Shinoa sharing the bed in what seemed like a comfortable embrace.

"Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-YUU!" Mitsuba blushed hard enough to look like she had 50% of all the blood in her body in her cheeks. She took a step back and smacked her head into the wall, unable to do anything but point at the pair in bed. "Wh-wh-what are y-y-you two doing?!"

That scream promptly awakened the two of them. Yuu was the first to raise his head, groaning sleepily. "…urgh, Mitsuba? What are you doing?"

"That's my line, you sick freak! To do it in highschool…just how perverted are you?!" Mitsuba summoned her axe and slammed the edge into the ground, cutting a large crevice in the carpet.

"Hey, hey! There's someone living below me!" Yuu was now perfectly wide awake, and was scrambling in a panic. He looked to his left and realized that the still-waking Shinoa had her arms wrapped around his waist. "Wai-Shinoa?!"

The purple-haired girl merely let out a yawn and slowly opened her eyes. "…what's with all of…?" Realizing her situation changed her, however. With a very prominent flush of the cheeks, Shinoa pushed Yuu away and quickly clambered out of bed. "Th-this isn't what you think it is, Mitsuba…"

"Ho, so you popped the cherry already?" Guren sneered as he poked his head from around the corner, smirking. "Good thing you got it out of the way. Makes it easier to die without regrets, that's for sure."

"G-Guren!" Yuu staggered to his feet, his eyebrows furrowed deeply and his mouth forming a scowl that looked not-too-out-of-place with his reddening face. "Shut your mouth!"

"Well, anyway, you'd better take responsibility. Girls get pissed if you don't." Guren called out as he walked out of the doorway, taking Mitsuba by her collar and dragging her behind him. She kicked, flailed and complained, but couldn't hope to free herself. "I'll have your stuff dropped off here later, Shinoa, so take your time and enjoy the rest of the morning." He then grabbed Kimizuki with the other hand and began dragging him away as well. Yoichi didn't need the physical abuse; he was all too knowledgeable of what would happen to him if he didn't follow.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED! AND WE ARE NOT DOING THAT!" was the pair's response as they yelled back at Guren loudly enough to wake up the rest of the apartment building.

Gurren just walks out of the door, giving them a thumbs up.


	2. Epilogue

Author's Note: Hey, guys! I'm so glad that you liked this oneshot LordPurpleHeart and I wrote. It started off as an idea I had and I noticed that there weren't much Yunoa fics out there, so I decided to make a oneshot. But since you guys loved the oneshot so much I decided to add this as an extra.

 **EPILOGUE**

"So, you're eating breakfast here?"

Shinoa stared at the group that was surrounding the table in Yuu's room with narrowed eyes and knit eyebrows, her voice laced with more than a little bit of poison.

One Lieutenant Colonel and the rest of her squad sitting around the table. Guren had his arms crossed with one leg over the other while leaning in the back of his chair. Mitsuba was sitting on the side of the table close to Guren, mimicking Guren's pose, but instead of a calm expression, she had a grumpy face.

Kimizuki sat across from Yoichi, looking bored. He was leaning forward with his chin onto his elbow, still drowsy and half-asleep. He still had his bedhead going strong, with a few antennas of his light pink hair sticking out like he'd been rolled around in quesadillas and oven-baked.

Yoichi, on the other hand, just sat there like the shy, good boy he was without saying a word. From time to time, he'd glance up and looked at someone, but no one was saying a word. He looked to Shinoa thankfully, although he had mixed feelings about being spoken to the way Shinoa was when he hadn't really done anything wrong.

Guren shrugged indifferently at the question, giving her a flat look. "No thanks. I'd rather eat your food than mine. Saves money that way." The corners of his mouth crept up very slightly, a difference that was almost invisible to most but unmistakable to the girl glaring at him. "Sorry if we're intruding on the after-glow of your great night."

Shinoa just shot a glance in the kitchen, where Yuu had decided to escape from Guren's wry smile and Mitsuba's wrath through the convenient method of cooking breakfast.

But the kitchen was close by, and Guren's snide comment did not go unnoticed.

"For the last time, we never did that!" Yuu screamed indignantly from the kitchen, his face red from both irritation and embarrassment as he flipped an omelet. "You guys haven't been listening at all, mouthing off and saying whatever you want!"

Kimizuki just averted his gaze, stifling a yawn. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Not like I care."

Yoichi gave him a troubled smile. "I think you should, though…"

"…" Deciding not to draw out the conflict any further, Shinoa sat down on her chair next to Yoichi and let out a very silent breath of air that contained around half of her tension. Deciding to just wait for Yuu to serve her breakfast to her, Shinoa waited patiently.

Oddly enough, even though the morning hadn't started the right way, she didn't feel that bad about it all. She wasn't in a bad mood.

And so they all waited, the sound of sizzling food enticing the whole group but not enough to make any of them say anything. Before long, the sound of sizzling and the smell of food being cooked died down, and Yuu emerged from the kitchen holding an array of white plates filled with food.

"…smells pretty good." Guren complimented dryly, his glance fixing on the boy that was striding towards them with a subtle hint of mockery.

Yuu just ignored him and placed a plate in front of him, proceeding to put the other porcelain plates of food in front of everyone else. Going around the table, he placed the last plate in front of Shinoa.

Gurren let out a cough before a wry smile spread on his lips. "Save the best for last, huh?"

"Shut up!" The two shot back in unison, faces red and lips bit in irritation.

Yuu just let out an exasperated breath and walked back into the kitchen, and then came out a second later with his own plate of food.

Shinoa felt a small pan of embarrassment mixed with irritation hit her as she peered down at the plate of food that Yuu had placed in front of her.

 _…he really did give me my breakfast._

The gesture itself was simple, and she knew that it meant nothing at all. After all, it was the early morning and everyone got hungry at this time. She'd stayed over at his place.

Of course he would make her breakfast. It went without saying.

 _…no way I'd let it happen the other way around._ Shinoa silenced the stream of thoughts that was slowly bringing more and more heat to her cheeks and sipped from her glass of water to cool down.

"Hey, Yuu!" Yoichi suddenly called out, putting his spoon down. "Where are you gonna sit?"

Everyone realized that their shyest member had made a point. They had occupied all of the chairs, leaving the master of the apartment with nowhere to sit.

"…oh, good question." Yuu poked his head out from the kitchen door frame and realized the predicament. He scratched his head as he took a few seconds to stare at the table as if a new chair were somehow going to magically appear from the floor.

"Why don't you just share my chair?"

Everyone turned to stare at Shinoa, who belatedly realized what she had let escape from her mouth and covered it in embarrassment. Instantly, Guren's mouth twisted into a fiendish smirk, but he dared to let it go without comment and just drank some water instead.

He shot a glance at her though, a noticeable one that got Shinoa's attention.

And it only raised the heat on her face like an oven.

"…well, if you're okay with it…" Yuu, averting his gaze out of embarrassment, muttered as he walked out of the kitchen with a plate of his own breakfast in his hands.

 _Shit, I can't get out of this one!_ Shinoa, no longer able to escape from the situation since she created it herself, did her best to hide her irritation and scooted over a bit to make space for him.

He strode over to her seat and sat down, half of his behind hanging off of the chair. He put his plate on the table, shifting his position a bit. His shoulder made contact with Shinoa's as he did, and Yuu couldn't help but feel like Guren was taking everything that was happening and loading it into a gun to shoot them with later.

Just ignore it, Shinoa. The leader of the squad told herself, trying her best to completely gloss over the fact that she could feel the warmth of his skin through her clothes, and it was making her feel so awkward that it wasn't even funny anymore. All I have to do is tolerate it for a few minutes…

"…hey, are you okay, Shinoa?" Yuu suddenly asked her, and she turned in surprise to see his face close to hers. The distance between their bodies was practically nil, and the purple-haired girl could feel a puff of his warm breath on her face. "Of course. Wh-why do you ask?" She asked, cursing inside when she stuttered.

"No, it's just that…" Yuu raised his hand and placed it onto her forehead, and he nodded once as if his suspicions had been confirmed. "Yeah, you feel really warm. I can tell from here. Are you sure you're not sick or anything? Maybe your wound got infected."

"I-I'm fine." Shinoa replied, flustered, swatting his hand away from her forehead and patting him once on the shoulder.

But Yuu didn't buy a single second of it. He inched closer, placing a hand on his own forehead and placing another on hers again. Shinoa, caught off guard, couldn't do anything except react. "Wh-what are you-?!"

"You're totally warmer than usual. I think you're not feeling well."

"Well, whose fault do you thi-?!"

Immediately, Shinoa realized what she was about to say and clamped her mouth shut with her hands. Immediately, she threw her gaze at everyone else present.

Kimizuki, though his face had reddened a bit in embarrassment, said nothing and continued to eat in silence. He was clearly trying his utter best to ignore the commotion. Yoichi caught Shinoa's eyes and immediately returned his attention to his food as if he were trying to ignore them as well. He was almost as red as Shinoa was, but out of sheer embarrassment.

Mitsuba was staring at the two of them with a red face as well, and there was a strange look in her eyes. It was easy to see that she was trying not to call them out because her mouth was moving very slightly as if she were saying something without saying it loud.

Guren was the only one left composed, though Shinoa could detect the layers of irritation and maliciousness behind his otherwise flat expression.

"…you need not be so concerned with me. Just eat your breakfast." Shinoa lightly slapped his hand away again, returning to her meal. She reached for her glass of water-

-only for her hand to accidentally touch Yuu's who had reached to get his glass. Shinoa yelped and pulled her hand away, with Yuu left a loss for what to say in reply.

"…if you want, we can leave you two alone for today." Kimizuki muttered, clearly unable to handle much more. "Flirting in front of others is rude, but it's the morning after… **that** …so…"

Yuu shot him an angry glare, beginning to lose what little patience he had left. "For the millionth time, we haven't done that!"

"If you want to get frisky in the morning, we should leave." Guren just sighed and took another bite out of his scrambled egg. "Once the cherries do it once, they want to go at it like rabbits until they spoil."

"GODDAMMIT GURREN, SHUT UP!"

* * *

 _Thank god he left._

Yuu let out a sigh of relief and exhaustion as he browsed through his room for the remainder of Shinoa's belongings while Shinoa and Mitsuba had volunteered to wash the dishes and utensils. Yoichi and Kimizuki, having nothing else to do, decided they would find a nice lunch for everyone to easy at Yuu's apartment.

Though Yuu still wanted to question why everyone was crashing at his place, he refrained from doing so lest the situation and atmosphere turn for the worse.

And with what had already happened this morning, it was definitely bound for the worse.

"…this is a lot of bags." Yuu muttered, his eye on the large number of bags that clearly belonged to Shinoa. He sighed and walked over to one of them, unzipping it and widening the opening. "Is it a girl thing?"

Without thinking twice, he shoved his arm into it and began rummaging through the contents. "What could she possibly have in here?"

He felt his bare hand slide over something smooth and soft, and he grabbed it in between his fingers and pulled it out so that he could see it in the light.

It was a small cloth shaped strangely with a ribbon on the front. There were two large holes on the bottom right and left of the object.

Without a doubt, it belonged to Shinoa.

Without a doubt, it was something Yuu was never supposed to touch.

His face reddened instantly, and he immediately stashed it roughly into the bag before anyone could dare walk into the bedroom and see what he was doing.

 _…hang on. Where is she gonna put this if she'll stay here?_

Hoping no one would walk into the room, he unzipped the bag again and dragged it over to his closet. Opening the small doors, he nodded at the sight of such little amounts of clothing and nearly no variety at all.

 _…if only I had another closet._ He thought to himself begrudgingly before he began pushing his clothes aside as far as possible to make more room.

* * *

"You didn't have to stay, you know." Shinoa muttered to the girl standing next to her as she wiped down the plate in her hands. Running water flowed over them, through her fingers and enveloping the porcelain before hitting the bottom of the sink with a moderately loud splat.

"I guess you'd want that, wouldn't you?" Mitsuba replied testily, drying another freshly rinsed plate in her hands with a towel.

The two of them were in the kitchen alone, cleaning while not daring to let a single word escape their lips. The only sounds permeating the air were the sounds of squeaking porcelain as it was being cleaned by a rag, the sound of flowing water as it ran from the faucet and into the sinkhole and the splash of the liquid as it struck the metal of the sink.

Shinoa tried her best not to let it get it to her, choosing instead to continue cleaning without saying anything. She went through dish after dish, her gaze now and then flickering to the girl beside her.

"…Shinoa, do you like Yuu?"

The girl immediately dropped the plate in her hands, and it landed in the sink hard. Thankfully, it didn't shatter into a billion shards like she'd feared, but it instead made a loud thump that made her heart fall two inches into her gut.

"Wh-what are you talking about?!" She turned her head to the blonde, desperately trying to keep her composure and her cheeks as flesh-colored as possible. She picked the plate she had dropped back up and continued to rinse it from where she had last left off, making sure she didn't look Mitsuba in the eye. "Ah, as a person, huh? He's not that bad, even if he's stupid most of the time. He can be-"

"You're doing a terrible job of dodging the question." Mitsuba said, her tone serious enough to derail the comedic feel of the situation. She turned her head in Shinoa's direction, and she stopped drying the plate in her hands when she did. "I'll ask it differently. Do you love him?"

Left at a loss for words, Shinoa could do nothing but stare blankly at her squadmate with her mouth hanging open. They moved on their own as if she were struggling to say something, but wasn't able to release them from her throat. "I-I-I…"

The sound of the door opening made both girls jump in fright, and they turned on the intruder to see Kimizuki casually holding up a few plastic bags in his hand. His flat, uncaring expression made it hard to tell if he knew what they were talking about or not. "Here, we have lunch."

"W-wait for me!" Yoichi's voice resounded from somewhere behind Kimizuki, and the brown-haired boy appeared moments later with a larger grocery bag in both of his hands. He appeared be struggling as he walked into the kitchen and sloppily plopped the groceries in his arms onto the wooden surface. "Sheesh, you made me carry that one even though you're stronger…"

"Relax, you need the exercise." Kimizuki retorted dismissively before placing his share of the plastic bags onto the dining table. Just then, he noted both of their expressions and the air in the room. "Wh-what? Did I do something wrong? Or is this another one of your spats?"

"Nothing." Mitsuba replied as she walked out of the room, firing a look at Shinoa that clearly said this conversation is not over. Shinoa, in turn, let out a pent-up breath of relief once the blonde had gone out of sight.

"By the way, where'd Yuu go?" Yoichi asked as he began to unpack the ingredients bit by bit on the table and organize them neatly. "Wasn't he helping you?"

"…come to think of it…" Shinoa realized that he was right. She strolled past him and walked into the hallway, making a turn and heading straight for the bedroom. _Was he showering? He didn't say anything…_

As she peered into the bedroom, she let out a mortified scream.

Yuu was sitting on the floor in front of the closet with the closet door wide open, and one of her bags was right next to him.

And in his hands was her underwear.

"Shinoa?!" Yuu, surprised, quickly scrambled back and threw Shinoa's undergarments away from him. "W-wait, this isn't what it looks li-!"

"P-PERVERT!"

With that loud scream, Yuu was knocked out cold by a solid smack to the back of his neck.

* * *

"I'm back, non-virgins!"

Guren sighed as he closed the door, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders. Man, that was a boring meeting. Even more boring than the usual ones. As he took a look around, he noticed that he couldn't see the two people he had mentioned.

He walked straight into the kitchen, spotting Yoichi and Kimizuki preparing food. "Hey, where'd the two brats go?"

"Oh, um…" Yoichi cocked his head, unsure of what to say in reply. "Maybe you can check the bedroom. Shinoa went to look for Yuu, so…"

"Alright, so they're probably getting up to something." Guren couldn't help but smile wryly. He turned around and made a beeline for the bedroom. "Hey, brat! Get your ass out here!"

Before Guren could open the door to the bedroom, just as his hand was about to touch the doorknob, it suddenly opened seemingly of its own accord. Yuu's head poked out, and it glared at Guren with the strongest go away aura it's ever given off. "…What. Do. You. Want? "

Guren wanted to burst out laughing when he saw the large red mark on Yuu's cheek, but he did his best to maintain a straight face. "Where's your girl?"

"Not mine." Yuu gestured to the bathroom. "She went in to take a shower."

"I'm guessing you took a peek." Guren shrugged indifferently. "Whether it was intentional or not, you need to exercise better self-control."

The door flew open to Yuu clenching his fists in anger, and he stomped his foot once as he made his point. "I didn't do that!"

"Well, it's not like I can blame you for being disappointed." Guren sighed, patting the younger boy on his shoulder in mock sympathy. "There's not much to look at. But if that's what you like, I won't judge."

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Yuu asked murderously, already on the verge of drawing out his blade and going ape-crazy on Guren's face.

Guren just let out a snarky, sarcastic laugh. "Don't worry, it's not like she can hear-"

"You guys are terrible at keeping quiet." Mitsuba muttered, her arms crossed over her chest while she shook her head. "She could hear all of it from there, you know. That's why she got you."

Guren and Yuu sat across from her, now with one slap mark to each face. "Well, I think it's time we gave them some space." Guren suggested, getting to his feet and starting for the door. "I'll just take the other two boys here and fix up Shinoa's room."

As he walked out, he grabbed Kimizuki and Yoichi by their collars and began dragging them out without so much as a word of further explanation. "Hey! How long do I have to stay here, anyway?!" Shinoa yelled out a question that suddenly came to mind.

"Uh…about a week, I guess." Guren yelled back, doing his best to overpower the voice of a ballistic Kimizuki who was struggling to free himself from Guren's iron grip.

"A week?!" Yuu leaped to his feet from the couch, staring at the older man in disbelief. He ran over to him, dodging the wildly flung fists of his taller teammate and standing nearer to his shorter teammate.

"You're still soldiers, okay? Sure, you can do it, but too much will make you too tired and unfit for battle. Keep that in mind." Guren responded.

"N-nothing like that will happen, for the last fucking shitty goddamn time!" Yuu raged, and he turned around and pointed at Guren's face while he locked his eyes on Shinoa. "Shinoa, fucking tell him!"

"Wh-what do you want me to do?" Shinoa, getting more and more lost on what the situation was devolving into, just took a step away and waved her hands in a no fashion.

"By the way, kid." Guren muttered to the extremely angry black-haired boy next to him, placing his hand on the teen's head. "A piece of advice."

"…what?" Yuu asked, taken off guard and not sure if he should take the man seriously.

"Just seal the deal and go out with her already. It'll save you lots of time."

Yuu blushed bright red in response to that statement, but couldn't say anything more when Guren pushed him back into his apartment and kicked the door shut, which closed with a loud boom. Yuu just stood there, left at a loss for what to say, do or even think next. Bereft of any further deep thought, Yuu decided to just walk back into the kitchen and finish cleaning the other unfinished dishes.

As he picked up a plate and turned on the faucet, the words Guren left still remained within his mind. _…go out with her?_

At that moment, his train of thought collided head-on with his other train of thought and created a fiery explosion of debris and steel that completely demolished a bunch of other trains as well as the station.

 _NO NO NO! WHY DID I STOP TO THINK ABOUT IT FOR A MOMENT?! I'M NOT INTO HER LIKE THAT! WE'RE NOT LIKE THAT! NO, WE'RE NOT! WHY IS MY HEART BEATING SO FAST?! WHY DOES IT SUDDENLY FEEL REALLY WARM IN HERE?! I KNOW I TURNED THE AIRCON ON!_

"…I need a shower." Yuu put the plate down, turned off the faucet and walked out of the kitchen with his mind still a blurry, hot mess.

* * *

"You still haven't answered my question, Shinoa." Mitsuba asked.

The two, having been left alone, were sitting on the couch and relaxing, half-waiting for something else to happen. But nothing did, and Shinoa cursed the fact that nothing did so that she wouldn't be faced with this problem.

"What question?" Shinoa asked in reply, hoping to brush it off.

It didn't work. "Do you love him?" Mitsuba pressed, her eyebrows knitting. "Just say yes or no. It's that simple."

"…and if I answer?" Shinoa tested, locking eyes with Mitsuba.

"Depending on your answer, I'll decide what to do next. If you say no, then that's fine." She shrugged. "If you say yes, then I'd advise you to tell him already before anything else happens."

"…then…"

Images flashed through her brain, moments replayed in her mind and all sorts and colors of emotions raced through her chest like a VCR on rewind. A drop of sweat ran down the side of her head, and her face felt so warm that she could have cooked a Hot Pocket on it.

Shinoa's emotions told her to curl up in a hole and die quickly She felt like she had no control over her own mouth as it opened to say something.

"…yes."

"That was the answer I was expecting, you know." Mitsuba smiled.

"Sh-Shut up."

* * *

"So you're finally leaving?" Yuu asked Mitsuba exasperatedly, sounding both irritated and relieved.

"Don't sound so happy about it." Mitsuba retorted as she turned the doorknob and opened it halfway. She turned around and shot a look at Yuu. "I can't stay here forever. I have my own apartment."

"Thank God you do."

Mitsuba laughed sarcastically, and she took a step outside. "Alright, you two have a good night."

"Yeah, sure." Yuu waved his hand in goodbye and closed the door.

The instant he did, he knew that he had to hold back from swearing.

The tension in the apartment was thick and nearly tangible, as if elements of oxygen had been mistaken for elements in peanut butter. He took a step in the direction of the living room, which alone already felt like a draining, heart-dropping task.

And he knew it wasn't going to get any easier. With everyone else gone, Guren's previous words were sticking to his mind like they had been superglued. Merely recalling the sentence made Yuu's heart leap and fall at the same time, and he felt the back of his neck run with a chill as sweat slowly but surely trickled down. Simultaneously, his face was heating up like a toaster on 240 degrees and his lungs felt like barbed wire was being wrapped around them.

As he walked into the living room, he spotted Shinoa sitting on the sofa, leaning her head on the headrest with her eyes closed.

Shaking his head to hopefully drive away all of the embarrassing thoughts, Yuu decided to walk past the couch and walk over to the window in the very same living room, trying to occupy his time with staring at nothing.

With all of his own internal struggle, he didn't realize that Shinoa was having her own form of a mini-anxiety-attack.

She definitely felt like her chest was being struck repeatedly by an object she refused to acknowledge as her heart, and it was being done at a near-unhealthy speed. Opening her eyes, she knew right away that she was getting a bit dizzy and more than a little warm.

 _Go out with her already_ , he thought.

 _Tell him already_ , she thought.

Through her mind, images of her and him began flashing at inhuman speeds achievable only by thought and light. Every single one more embarrassing than the last, and every single one weighing heavier and heavier on her mind and heart until she was quite sure that her brain weighed in at the same as a seven story concrete building.

 _I…_ Steeling every fiber and molecule of her being, she took a slow, deep breath and tried to control the part of herself that wanted to scream and run away. She got to her feet and slowly turned to Yuu, who had his back to her and was facing the window, staring outside in a clear attempt to distract himself and hopefully avoid anything else that Guren could use against him.

With a single step, the atmosphere had taken an extreme shift. Shinoa's foot had made a clear, unmistakable sound that sounded so loud in the quiet room that it could have echoed for miles and the pair present wouldn't have known the difference.

The instant Shinoa heard that sound, she screamed fuck it inside her mind and continued her pace towards Yuu, hoping that he either didn't hear it or didn't really care.

Her hopes were never to come to pass. The instant Yuu heard her footstep, all of time stopped for a millisecond. His breath caught in his throat, almost forcing him to cough, but he managed to keep it under control. He had absolutely no idea what to say, how to react and whether or not he should turn around.

He dared not look back, hoping that Shinoa was going to the bathroom.

Shinoa stopped right in front of Yuu's back, and she stared at it as if it were an obstacle of some sort. Like she was supposed to go through it in order to achieve her goal or something akin to that.

"…Yuu." She said, her voice coming out quiet and timid even though she intended it to be strong and normal. She bit back a curse and waited for him to reply.

"…yeah?" He asked, not turning around to face her. He didn't want to show her how nervous he knew he looked; he could feel his eyebrow twitching in anxiety and his cheeks burning hotly like he was going to forge a sword on his face. He kept his back to her, praying to whatever god left he believed in that things weren't going to turn for the worse.

"…about what you said last night."

 _What?_ Those words were not what he expected, and Yuu almost turned around to ask about that before he wrestled his curiosity under control. "…what do you-?"

"We're family, right?" She said, and she took another silent deep breath before she took a step to the side and one forward to stand directly next to him. "You and I."

Yuu almost collapsed in relief when he heard that, but he kept sane and calm to let his answer come out. "Yeah. You, Mitsuba, Yoichi…Kimizuki's a pain, but he's like family too. And Guren, too. He can be an ass."

"That's true. Like today, god." Shinoa said with a smile, chuckling. "He can be really tactless. There's never an end to his rudeness, and it's such a bad statement from a superior officer."

"Yeah, he just pisses me off!" Yuu agreed, laughing.

Slowly, their laughter died down into silence once more. But as they stared out the window with the Prussian blue night sky, twinkling white stars and the grey of the debris and broken buildings far below, it was not the same silence.

It was a silence of comfort. Of companionship.

"…jeez, it's colder than I thought." Shinoa suddenly said to herself as she shivered and hugged her arms together. "Maybe we should have turned the air-conditioning up a bit…"

"Oh, here."

Without a second thought, Yuu quickly jogged into his bedroom, snatched his cloak, and then returned to Shinoa. He reached over her shoulders and threw it around her, closing the clip below her chin. "There." He said, satisfied. He took a step back and placed his hands on his hips, proudly admiring his handiwork. "It's warmer than you'd think."

She rubbed the cloth in between her fingers, and she smiled. "…it really is warmer than I thought." She placed her hands onto her cheeks, and her smile grew wider. "In fact, I can feel it spreading throughout my whole body."

"So? Well, that's good." Yuu said, nodding once before glancing out the window yet again. Shinoa followed his gaze, and they lapsed into the comforting silence once more.

"…hey, Yuu?"

"Yeah, Shinoa."

"I…I don't like you."

Immediately, Yuu felt as if a chasm had opened up in his chest, and he turned to Shinoa with a cold sting in his heart. "Wait, where'd that come-?!"

But before he could finish, Shinoa cut him off.

"I don't like you. I love you."


End file.
